First Afghan female pilot aims to soar

Capt. Niloofar Rahmani was 18 years old when she heard a news announcement saying the Afghan Air Force wanted to recruit its first female pilots.

Her father had dreamed of flying in the military as a young man. He became Rahmani’s strongest champion when she set out to join the all-male cadre, but he also warned his daughter that many difficulties lay ahead. “Go for it, but you must be strong,” Rahmani recalled him saying.

When Rahmani earned her wings in July 2012 and qualified to fly the C-208 cargo plane, she became the first female pilot to serve in the Afghan military since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

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